Ring or like feeder for sewing machines



Aug. 22, 1961 w. A. TROLL RING 0R LIKE FEEDER FOR SEWING MACHINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 7, 1956 lNVENTOR Will zlamhfro Z1 1 BY J;;7ATTORNEY Aug. 22, 1961 w. A. TROLL RING OR LIKE FEEDER FOR SEWING MACHINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 7, 1956 Z 4L mm a 6 Z a W ATTORNEY Aug. 22, 1961 w. A. TROLL RING OR LIKE FEEDER FOR SEWING MACHINES 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed May 7, 1956 INVENTOR I Wzzzmmmvw Aug. 22, W. A. TROLL RING OR LIKE FEEDER FOR SEWING MACHINES Filed May 7, 1956 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IT- E1.

Ll I IIIIIIIIIIIA I k\\\\\\\ INVENTOR Wzlllb amm'oli m ATTORNEY United States Patent 6 ship Filed May 7, 1956, Ser. No. 583,270 1 Claim. (Cl. 221-180) This invention relates to feeders, and more particularly to ring feeders for button sewing machines.

My invention relates to feeders for directing elements to be sewn by a tacking or button sewing machine generally shown in my Patents Nos. 2,597,912 of May 27, 1952, and 2,661,709 of December 8, 1953.

In said patents, buttons are fed from a hopper to a feeder forming a portion of the presser foot, wherein the buttons are arranged to be fed thereto in edge-to-edge contact. The hopper in such constructions picks up the buttons from a bulk supply and orients them individually in edge-to-edge arrangement along a chute leading to the presser foot for carrying out the button sewing operations. The employment of such orienting hopper, while effective for buttons of substantial thickness, has not been found readily adaptable for handling of thin stock fastener elements. Thus, endeavors to handle thin stock material, such as disks, rings, washers or the like, stamped, cut or otherwise formed from sheets in the range of from .005 to .025" have entailed unforseen problems in the delivery of the fastener elements from a bulk source to the throat of thechute or like conducting track.

In accordance with my invention, it is an object thereof to provide an orienting feeder or hopper for delivering in edge-to-edge arrangement to a chute or like track, fastener elements to be sewn, tacked or otherwise attached or handled.

Still more particularly, it is an object of my invention to provide a hopper construction for arranging thin sewing elements, such as rings, washers or loops, in an edgeto-edge relation continuously to feed such elements to an attaching device in the nature of a button sewing machine presser foot, whereby automatic operations may be carried out with precision continuously and uninterruptedly, eliminating unusual care, supervision or maintenance of the installation.

To attain htese objects and such further objects as may appear hereinor be hereinafter pointed out, I make reference to the accompanying drawing, forming a part hereof, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view showing my device;

FIGURE 2 is a magnified detail of the hopper and presser foot feeder;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 33 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 4 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 4-4 of FIGURE 3;

FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary section taken on the line 5-5 of FIGURE 4;

FIGURES 6 and 7 are fragmentary details to illustrate the operation within the hopper;

FIGURE 8 is a section taken on the line 8-8 of FIG- URE 2;

FIGURE 9 is a fragmentary detail showing the work attached to a fabric, sewn in accordance with the installation.

Making reference to the drawing, I contemplate providing a feeder assembly for use with a button sewing machine, whether of the clamp shifting type or of the fixed work and reciprocable needle type.

An example of the former is illustrated in the drawing wherein the front of the button sewing machine 10 ice is shown having a rock lever 11 operating a lift bar 12 which engages a hooked post 13 usually provided for lifting a presser foot connected with the clamp member 14, which carries out, in coordination with the work supporting plate 15, the required jogging operation in synchronism wi ht the needle carrying bar 16. The presser foot in accordance with my prior patent which is particularly concerned with feeding sew-through buttons, is in a measure employed here insofar as the fastener elements are slid in a row in edge-to-edeg contact, in single file along a chute to the presser foot.

It is believed sufficient to point out that in the feeder mechanism, a lever 17 is engaged at one end 18 to the lift bar 12, which is also engaged to the hooked post 13. The movement of the lift bar 12 actuates the forked end of the lever 17, to direct it in the opposite direction at its end 19. The end 19 of the lever is coupled to the finger 19a moving the feeder carriage, as will be described herebelow.

Where I have attempted to apply such hopper installations for the attachment of wafer thin rings or washerlike elements made by stamping, cutting or otherwise forming fastener elements from stock ranging from .005 to .025" in thickness, particularly of sheet plastic, of which nylon is an example, serious feed problems have been encountered in endeavoring to arrange the fastening elements in the edge-to-edge position as heretofore practiced by me with sew-through or shank buttons. The shortcomings of my prior apparatus I attribute to the wide range tolerances which I find desirable to use in order that the wafer-like elements may be arranged from the haphazard condition in the bulk form toan edge-to-edge arrangement. Such wide tolerances whichyon the one hand, permit quick arrangement of the sewing elements, on the other hand result in inefiectual operation with thin elements in that overlapping of the fastening elements results, which in turn results in a binding accumulation in the hopper to obstruct the desirable free flow of these fastener elements from the hopper, through the throat leading to the chute.

To overcome this problem, I have found that normal tolerances between relatively movable parts comprising a tumbling spider and the throat of the chute, may be maintained Without objectionable obstruction in the handling of the wafer-thin fastening elements, such as rings. I accomplish such objective by the provision in a general assembly of rotary hopper, of a deflecting guide which restrains end play in the moving parts, and disperses two or more of the fastening elements which may be overlapping or in stacked condition, in tumbling the same so that sequentially a fastener element is deflected from a stratum of the fastening elements into the throat of the chute, to assure a continuous flow in edge-to-edge arrangement of the elements along the chute to the presser foot feeder of the attaching machine.

By way of exemplification and referring to FIGURE 9, I contemplate applying to a garment 20 rings R, to be attached thereto by a tacking stitch 21. Such arrangement of rings, attached as described, I have found useful in womens undergarments, such as corsets, foundations or in the assemblby of slidable connectors for shoulder straps of slips or like garments.

For this purpose, a bulk supply of such rings is introduced into the hopper 23, which is supported on a standard 24 on a table 25, on which is mounted the button sewing machine 10 as the convenient arrangement for handling the single file of rings to attach the same to some backing material or sheet. Leading from the hopper 23 is a chute 27, exemplified in one or both of my aforementioned patents, and desirably composed of a plurality of articulated sections which are connected to a presser foot element 28, cyclically and automatically to position an element to be attached to the backing material, sheet or fabric, which in the illustration is a portion of a garment.

In the main, the chute 27 has a guiding channel 29 extending along its length, the cross section of which connecting channel corresponds closely to the ring R to guide the rings in edge-wedge single file contact.

In accordance with the exemplified formof my construction, the rings slide along said chute, aided by gravitational flow and the vibration of the sewing machine, to the presser foot, where tilting levers of the general character referred to in my Patent No. 2,661,709 cyclically feed an element during each sewing operation from a point adjacent the sewing position to the sewing position and discharge the sewn element from the feeder in the sequence of raising the presser foot, releasing the presser foot and repeating the operation. Thus, the raising and lowering of the presser foot 28, accompanied by the relative movement of the feeder carriage 30' to the sewing machine head, moves the tiltable feeder claws 31 and 32, directing the prongs 33 and 34 thereof into engagement with the ring, moving the same from the third position rearwardly of the presser foot with the discharge of an attached ring successively to the second position, and finally to the sewing position, in readiness for a repeated cycle.

The foregoing operations may be better understood by reference to Patent 2,661,709, and need not here be amplified since the invention herein concerns itself primarily with the novel hopper construction, to assure a steady, uninterrupted flow of the ring elements in single file from a bulk source into the chute. It is to be observed that while in my prior sew-through button feeder the orienting and transferring prongs on the tilting levers are used, in the feeding of single hole rings, the levers may each have a single prong for shifting. It will be understood that the prior arrangement of tilting levers may be retained where the orientation of the fastener is to be carried out.

Referring now to FIGURE 1, the standard 24 has mounted thereon a bracket 35 from which there is extended the shaft 36. A housing 37 is affixed to the shaft, which extends preferably angularly upwardly to face the housing, so as to take advantage of gravity flow in two planes, as will appearherebelow. The housing comprises an axially mounted hub 38, from which is radially extended the backing plate 39, having an annular flange to. An arm 41 is radially extended from the flange, to which is arranged to be aflixedthe upper terminal portion 42 of the feeder chute or track previously described.

Mounted on the shaft 36 for rotation thereon is the hopper spider assembly 43, having on its rear face adjacent the backing plate 39, a pulley groove 44. A cutout 45 on the housing 37 adjacent the arm 11 permits threading of a slip belt 46 of coiled wire, arranged to be extended to drive a motor (shownat M) for rotating the spider assembly 43 by slip-belt connection.

The spider assembly has a radially extended guide face plate -47, preferably tilted upwardly, forwardly of which is mounted the hub 48 and spokes 49 supporting the peripheral flange 50 in spaced relation to the guide face plate '47, to'outline a radially extended slot 51 between the guide face plate 47 and flange 50 at the periphery. The depth of the slot approximates the thickness of the elements to "be fed, with adequate clearance. The spider assembly thus described is rotationally mounted to nest within the annular flange 40, to have the latter circumferentially shield the slot 51. The peripheral flange 50 of the spider is formed with an internal lip 52, and to the flange may be alfixed the hopper skirt 53 to enclose a bulk supply of the fastener rings in haphazard condition.

With the assembly thus provided, the chute 42 is affixed by the screws 54 to the arm 41, to align the rear face 55 of the channel in alignment with the guide face plate 47 of the spider adjacent the throat 56 of the chute. The throat 56 is positioned along the periphery of the slot 5 1 with respect to the annular flange 40, so that, in rotation of the spider in the direction shown by the arrow 57 it will be locatedin apast-dcad center position so that the bottom edge wall 58 of the throat is in the leading position and the opposed upper edge wall 59 of the throat is in the trailing position with respect to the movement of the rotating spider;

The upper edge wall 59 of the chute, for a portion thereof is cut out as shown extending from an inner position at 64} (see FIGURE 4) and ending adjacent the throat 56. Into this cutout, there is extended the deflector blade 61. The deflector blade '61; at its rear portion 62, is held in position beneath the cover plate 63, which overlaps the channel previously described, and cooperates with the cover plate 64 to overlap the peripheral edges of the ring elements R.

A longitudinally extending ridge 65, essentially formed along the channel of the chute, cooperates withthe overhang of the cover plates 63 and 64 to assure an edge-toedge guiding of the ring elements, with minimum friction resistance and assures abutting contact of the rings in edge-to-edge engagement.

The deflector blade 61 is maintained in position at its rear end portion by the common fastener screw 66 for the cover plate 63, arm 41 and channel 42, which screw pivotally supports the deflector blade. At its forward end, the deflector blade is maintained tiltable within limits by the slot 67, through which the screw 68 .is directed.

The deflector blade has its nose portion 69 extended through the throat 56 into the slot 51, at which portion it has its leading edge formed with an angularly directed camming nose 70, merging into the guiding edge 71 to taper outwardly toward the rear portion 62 of the deflector. The deflector blade is of a thickness which closely conforms to the thickness of the rings R adjacent the nose portion 70, for purposes which will appear as this description proceeds.

In operation, ring shaped fastening elements are loaded into the hopper formed by the skirt 53 and the spider assembly 43. Rotation by means of the slip belt 46 tumbles the bulk supply of the rings as the spokes 49- agitate the mass of the rings. This serves in part to orient a good percentage of the rings to form a stratum of rings lying substantially in parallelism with the guide face plate 47 to direct the rings edgewiseinto the slot 51, where they may roll to the peripheral edge until they engage the annular flange 40, and upon reaching the leading side wall 58 of the throat 56, tending to enter the throat 56 in edgewise condition. End play for clearance which may be employed in rotatably mounting the spider 43 on the shaft 36 is minimized by the deflector, thereby aligning the slot 51 with the throat aperture 56 of the chute. Tolerances which may facilitate the entry of the rings into the slot 5 1 along the guide face plate 47, while occasionally serving to overlap the rings in face-to-face contact, will not adversely influence the regular flow of the rings into the throat 56 to obstruct the throat, since upon encountering the nose 70 of the deflector blade 61, the lowermost ring will be restrained from moving while the overlapping ring at an inner position is carried forward past the deflector. Such condition is more specifically illustrated in FIGURES 6 and 7.

In FIG. 6 there is shown a pair of rings R inpartly overlapped condition adjacent the throat S6.

The rotating face plate 47 is shown in said'FIG. 6 to have shifted the overlapping rings R upwardly until the lower of the overlapped rings R, being urged against the camming face 70 of deflector blade 61, has caused the blade to tilt upwardly about pivot 66 to'its upward limiting position whereatscrew 68 engages the lower end of slot 67. The throat 56 has thus been effectively temporarilyenl'arged by. the. upward tilting ofdeflector 61.

With continued rotation the lower ring R is restrained from moving but the upper ring is carried beyond the end of deflector 61, thus freeing the rings R from overlapping relation as shown in FIG. 7, and permitting the restrained lower ring to enter the throat portion 56. When the ring thus enters the throat, the deflector blade 61 returns to its normal or downwardly tilted position under the influence of gravity, such normal or downward position being limited by the engagement of screw 68 and the upper end of slot 67.

The mounting of the deflector blade with some limit of tiltability as described periodically enlarges the throat opening and allows for a deflection of a ring adjacent the throat, and into it, even though initially carried past the throat by a pinched condition of two or more overlapping n'ngs.

By the foregoing construction, large tolerances may be retained, to make for economical machining, and rapid entry of rings into the slot, without sacrificing performance which will assure a steady flow of the rings in edge-to-edge alignment, without binding or obstructing the throat and thereby permitting a continuous, automatic supply of rings during operation of the presser foot. Thus, a continuous flow assures that each cycle of movement of the tacking machine presser foot will serve to position a ring into sewing position when the presser foot is depressed, and upon automatically raising the presser foot, to carry out the function of the feeder in my prior patents, to eject the ring sewn to the fabric or the like.

I have described and exemplified as the fasteners to be fed in edge-to-edge contact thin, wafer-like rings, as these elements have been found by me to be useful in making fasteners for garments of the character described. It will be understood that these rings are illustrative only and the other thin, disk-like elements may be arranged in edge-to-edge contact for feeding along a feeding chute, for attachment either by a screwing operation, which I exemplify in the form of a button sewing machine, or by other tracking methods for applying a stitch, staple or other fastening element, and if desired, buttons, of such thickness as the rings may be employed, altering the lever elements to take care of the orientation of the sewing holes.

It will likewise be understood that while my invention has most desirable value in connection with rings or like elements of the thickness of from .005 to .025", this dimension is intended to be included within the term thin by way of illustration only, and that other fiat stock elements may be handled by the chute feeder for arranging the same in edge-to-edge relation from a bulk supply.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

In a chute feeder for thin, ring-shaped, plastic fastener elements of the order of .005 to .025" in thickness to provide a single file of such elements in edge-to-edge relation to said chute for directing the same to a sewing machine, the combination comprising a hopper spider assembly mounted rotationally on an angularly, upwardly directed shaft, said spider assembly having a guide face plate as a backing tilted angularly upwardly, said assembly having forwardly closely spaced from said guide face plate a peripheral flange substantially co-terrninus with said face plate, spoke means supporting said flange from said guide face plate outlining an annular, radially directed slot between said face plate and flange into which the fastener elements may be gravitationally directed flatwise throughsaid spoke means, said slot being of a size having large tolerance, into which two or more overlapping fastener elements may be pinched together and carried along with the flange when rotated, an annular flange shielding said slot against which the said elements may roll gravitationally on their edges and having a throat portion in said shield in past-dead center position adjacent the lowermost edge of said guide face plate, said throat having means to connect the same to said chute, and a deflector of a thickness which substantially conforms to the thickness of the fasteners extending from said throat into said slot, to align said slot and throat edgewise, means tiltably to mount said deflector in said throat periodically to enlarge the throat opening and arranged to deflect a single fastener adjacent said throat and into it while disengaging pinched together, overlapping fasteners in said slot, and means to rotate the spider assembly in the tilted position aforesaid.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,476,222 Salfisberg Dec. 4, 1923 1,502,053 Nordstrom July 22, 1924 1,511,258 Blake Oct. 14, 1924 1,623,066 Nordstrom Apr. 5, 1927 2,690,856 Trondle Oct. 5, 1954 2,782,573 Balsiger Feb. 26, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 383,459 Great Britain NOV. 17, 1932 

